Opinion | Features

In this cross posting from The ConversationPaul Harrison of Deakin University looks at the problems posed by trying to define what the average consumer is.
Who is the “typical” or “average” consumer? Is there such a thing? What do they look like? How do they make decisions? Am I an average (or perhaps a below average) consumer?
It’s something that comes up a lot in discussions around consumer protection, consumer advocacy, and regulation. Judges in consumer cases, for example, often ask whether the average person would understand their obligations in relation to a particular contract to which they have agreed. Similarly, cases related to the advertising of over-the-counter medicines, often rely on a judgment as to whether a typical consumer would understand the intentions of a particular advertisement.

In this guest post, Nick Fawbert highlights what YouTube’s rules for branded content mean for advertisers and multi-channel networks.
There was something of an inevitability about last week’s dismay over YouTube’s ‘clarification’ on the fees payable for branded content on YouTube’s channels. No commercially viable major platform is likely to offer free access to valuable audiences in perpetuity.

In this guest post, Anthony Freedman argues that media agencies will find it harder than they think to shift into public relations territory because it requires an entirely different culture.
Like a lot of people, I noticed the coverage surrounding Mat Baxter’s reveal of UM’s new “Creative Connections Agency” positioning last week.
It started with a piece in Mumbrella provocatively headlined “Media agencies aren’t our competitors” and continued the following day after Mat was goaded into stating UM “won’t be entering media agency awards any more”.
For anyone who didn’t read the stories, the gist of it is this; UM is no longer a media agency, it’s a ‘connections company’ that is embracing earned and owned media, and thus will herein compete with the likes of R/GA, Google and (closest to my heart) One Green Bean.

Amid the ongoing hype around content marketing Mark Yeow argues agencies and clients are getting too bogged down in the detail and need to look at content more broadly.
Our industry’s fixation on content marketing is keeping us from seeing the bigger picture.
The power of content extends far beyond lead generation, conversion, and other measures of marketing ROI. It is, perhaps the critical ingredient of any brand – essential to the vision of any discipline involved in creativity or communication, and indicative of their healthiness and longevity.

Streaming services have been getting a lot of headlines of late. OMD's Jeremy Gavin looks at what impact such services will have on evolving the television as a medium.
The Netflix beast is a product of its environment.

A curious mind is a prerequisite for being a creative. So why don't more youngsters entering the creative world ask questions asks Will Clark.
As a junior creative one of the most powerful creative tools is already at your disposal. Curiosity can be a crucial tool when starting work in an industry you know very little about. After my first few years in advertising I have come to realise the full potential of being a curious creative.
Fresh out of design college and AWARD school, I was ready to get stuck into the world of real briefs, real clients and real award potential. However I quickly discovered that the world of advertising is vastly different to the picture that we often paint in our minds before getting there.

Following the expose of blooding and other practices in greyhound racing last week Damian Madden looks at what the sport needs to do to regain public trust.
As an animal lover, and somebody who has been to the dog track occasionally, I was abhorred when I saw the Four Corner’s footage earlier this week of greyhound trainers ‘blooding’ their dogs using live animals.
Watching the fallout in the days that followed I began to wonder if greyhound racing could recover from this catastrophic blow. Has its brand been damaged beyond repair?

Today David Thodey announced he is retiring as CEO of Telstra after five years in the role. Richard Curtis who worked with the telco during his time with Interbrand, explains Thodey's role in rebuilding one of Australia's biggest brands.
Two experiences bookend recollections of my time working with Telstra, over a seven-year period in which I worked with three different marketing teams.
“Didn’t we do the brand last year?” was how one Telstra executive put it, somewhat taken aback by the idea that the Telstra brand might evolve, let alone have implications for his own business unit’s activities.

After predicting the winner of the Best Picture Oscar two years in a row using data Bryan Melmed puts his reputation on the line for a third time.

Our audience data and insights accurately predicted the best picture Oscar winner in 2013 and 2014. So it is possibly foolhardy to put our neck on the line again but as the saying goes, go hard or go home so I’m here to tell you that Birdman will win. Or at least this is what the data suggests. And here is why.

D&AD CEO Tim Lindsay argues scam is a disease and doing work to just win awards is worth nothing.
You would expect us to say this, but it has been an exciting year at D&AD. With the help of the Glue Society, Google and others we’ve brought New Blood to Australian shores for the first time, launched our new NowCreate programme and forged new partnerships with creative organisations around the world – such as AWARD - to enable us to better support the global creative community. It has been a good year.
However, as much as we’d like to focus on all the positives about our wonderful business, it’s important we don’t stick our head in the sand and ignore the more difficult stuff.

UM is shifting its focus from being the Big Boutique to the Creative Connections Agency. CEO Mat Baxter and chief strategy officer Sophie Price sat down with Nic Christensen to explain why the new positioning is more than just semantic, how it has torn up its remuneration model and why the traditional media agency focus on paid media is broken.
Say what you want about Mat Baxter, the iconoclastic CEO of UM knows how to generate a headline.

Navigating celebrity ambassador agreements can be difficult, with several high profile agreements ending badly in recent years. Here Stephen von Muenster and his team give some tips on what to look out for when drafting the legal terms.
Personalities who become brand ambassadors can be a powerful marketing tool for brands. From celebrities to social media influencers, they have the potential to make brands and products relatable and accessible, increasing exposure and successfully driving sales.
Unfortunately for brands, their fairytale relationship with an ambassador doesn’t always end happily ever after.

Brands are increasingly cashing in on the popularity of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in an attempt to lure the pink dollar with the likes of ANZ's GAYTMs leading the charge, writes Robert Burton-Bradley.

Listicles, quizzes and cat videos might be the flavour of the moment for content marketing, but it's only through in-depth long form content brands can really engage customers argues Atomic 212's Richard Quinn.
In today’s time-starved world, people just don’t have time to read longer content items. Give them short, quick snippets which can be quickly digested, like snacks on the run.
Or so you think.
In truth there is substantial evidence pointing to the contrary, which could have significant implications for your content marketing strategy.

Meat Free Week to launch next year in anti-factory farming awareness campaign

Don’t eat me for a week

A campaign has launched to raise awareness of the amount of meat Australians eat, and the practices behind factory farming.

The campaign centres around Meat Free Week, an event that urges Australians to go without eating animals for a week, from 18-24 March next year.

The campaign is being led by former NewsLifeMedia executive Melissa Dixon and Pacific Magazines national advertising director Lainie Bracher.

It is being backed by model and TV presenter Laura Csortan, former magazine editor Deborah Hutton and actor Krew Boylan. Chefs Simon Bryant, Belinda Jeffery and Bill Granger are providing meat-free recipes for the campaign.

Australia is the second largest consumer of meat per capita after the US. The average Australian eats around 120kg of meat a year. This consumption would not be possible without factory farming, which the campaign says leads to the suffering of 500m animals in Australia every year.

“We know it’s a big ask to cut back something you love to eat, but when people know the facts, we’re confident they’ll commit to eating less meat and when they do, make the choice to buy ethically produced meat” said campaign co-founder Melissa Dixon.

Money raised from those taking part in Meat Free Week will go to animal protection institute Voiceless.

Comments

Maybe that campaign website name should read ‘Meatfreeweek’ not ‘Meetfreeweek’? The latter sounds like something RSVP would do.

Kanye
30 Nov 12
3:00 pm

I hope nobody gets grilled about this one, a great initiative.

1982
30 Nov 12
3:20 pm

I think this is a great idea and this should kick off with not just one week across the year but two! I’m a meat eater but welcome this to encourage us to eat it less.

Gary Kurzer
30 Nov 12
5:51 pm

There are many dimensions to not eating meat.
One is the highly questionable moral grounds for using animals as our subservants.
They have a lot more sensitivity and characteristics that we are only just starting to understand. Personally, I see the moral issue as #1.

Secondly, meat is a highly taxing environmental disaster, from land clearing, to the amount of energy and water involved in the whole process of meat production.
Fruit and vegetables are more environmentally sensible and renewable.

Thirdly, the nutritional benefits of meat are also dubious, and it is important to get to the facts rather than listen to the spin doctors. Illnesses such as bowel cancer would be significantly reduced without high meat consumption.

Fourth: there are some heinous practices in the meat industry, from immoral slaughterhouse practices to the whole gamut of disease, parasites, and effects on meat eaters that result from the poor hygiene and deliberate skirting of quality assurances. Not so say anything about corruption and collusion.

Lastly, for now, tasty as they may be, the nitrite additions in processed meats is pretty bad stuff health wise. It is time to really address the whole issue.

Rosco
1 Dec 12
9:24 am

Just as I make sure I turn on as many lights as possible during Earth Hour I will ensure I eat as much meat as possible during this week.
I hate do-gooders trying to force their (usually left-wing, trendy) views on me. Piss off and go and play in the traffic.

Mike
1 Dec 12
7:51 pm

Rosco … sad. Just sad.

Mike
2 Dec 12
1:09 pm

Rosco, if your neighbour buys a rainwater tank, make sure you leave your taps running all day.
If they cycle to work, by an old gas guzzler and choose a new commuter route that’s twice as long.
If there’s a campaign against sexual harassment, make sure you shout lewd comments at women while driving your car.
That’ll show those trendy, lefty do-gooders.

AdGrunt
2 Dec 12
6:05 pm

Gary,

Any chance you could provide some substance to your specific or indeed the wider claims you make.

It’s just that, with a growing population, the effort to create food in general is going to increase. And a degree of scale will be required to achieve that. I’m afraid that your quaint Enid Blyton view of farms disappeared around WW2.

I’m especially interested your assertions about meat providing dubious nutritional benefit. Some support for that would be awesome as it sounds slightly at one with accepted nutritional advice.

Similarly for the slaughterhouse claims. Sounds a little like bullshit to me, so do share your supported insight on the matter on this and nitrates so we can make an informed judgement on your opinion.

Gee Adgrunt, where to start?
There’s a mass of reading out there.
The inescapable fact is that cultivating livestock for human consumption is a waste of resources. Vast amounts of studies to back this up.
Try Peter Singer’s Ethical Eating.
Or give it a google.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.....production

I personally don’t think there’s any difference between eating a cow or a donkey…but the floor sweepings and the maggots?

And the point about nutrition is that Australians eat much, much more meat than could ever be considered nutritionally beneficial. Ask almost any other non-Western culture. And do ask a nutritionist. When I was studying nutrition at University, it was made clear that the Western diet is too heavy in protein and too poor in complex carbohydrates (aka veges and grains).

It really isn’t polite to call someone”s informed opinion bullshit unless you have irrefutable supporting evidence to the contrary. It also raises questions about your credibility. Perhaps in the future you could frame your questions in a more respectful manner and you may (gasp!) learn something that you don’t already know?

S
3 Dec 12
3:09 pm

I love research backed up with a great wikipedia link!

AdGrunt
3 Dec 12
8:32 pm

Gary – don’t link-bomb.
Support your assertions cogently. And don’t link to partisan vegan shock-sites. It makes you appear a loon and this whole exercise as a vegan-in-animal-husbandry-clothing shonk.

Mike – your wikipedia link is fascinating, especially where it mentions that intensive farming and closed-loop farming is more energy and land efficient that traditional methods. But is that all?

Ricki – don’t embarrass yourself by linking to an article about a thirty year old report.
It’s rude to do so, then suggest bullshit is actually informed opinion. Provide credible support. It’s the job of those making the assertion to support it.
And the point is about intensive farming and animal husbandry, so stop pursuing strawman arguments about nutrition.

LW
3 Dec 12
10:33 pm

I love AdGrunt. Smart AND rude, my perfect man!

AdGrunt
3 Dec 12
11:38 pm

Join the queue, LW.

Mike
4 Dec 12
6:02 am

AdGrunt, do you anticipate there might be any argument that would make you alter your opinions?
I doubt it. Most people don’t approach these issues with the proper mindset – “what is the best thing to do?” – but instead are only thinking, “how can I defend my preferred lifestyle choice?”
Being vegetarian or vegan is better for the environment and limits cruelty to animals. Those are inescapable facts that you simply choose not to accept.

AdGrunt
4 Dec 12
7:41 am

Mike, why doubt your ability to make a cogent argument? It’s the lack of one that prevents me believing you.

Supporting your “inescapable facts” would be agood start.

It’s also a bit awkward that you’ve hijacked a campaign for ethical animal husbandry bandwagon with a vegan agenda.

Mike
4 Dec 12
7:19 pm

I don’t doubt my ability to make a cogent argument.
I doubt your willingness to hear it.
There is plenty of useful information in the links posted above, much of it non-partisan. Far more than I think Mumbrella would be keen to moderate in this comments thread.
Not at all sure why you complain about “link-bombing”. Perhaps because you’d rather argue with individuals online than just do some reading and inform yourself?
Peter Singer’s “Ethical Eating”. A long-form cogent argument.
Read it. With an open mind.

Gary Kurzer
5 Dec 12
5:04 pm

I wrote a book that was concerned with a number of the aspects in my earlier post.
I don’t think that many of the arguments are unsubstantiated. Moral arguments are clearly personal but best determined after a little soul searching.

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